Lecture 17 - Democratic Backsliding, Repression, Autocracy Promotion
Comparative Politics - POLS 3311
2024-04-08
Agenda
Today
- Topic overview
Wednesday
- Reading: Zhukov, Yuri M. "Repression Works (Just Not in Moderation)." Comparative Political Studies. Volume 56, Issue 11. https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140231152778 - Note: You may need to be logged into the UH library system with Cougarnet or the library proxy
- Complete topic
Democratic backslding
Why worry about democratic backsliding?1
Democratic backslding
Why worry about democratic backsliding?
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Hyde (2020) notes that while the number of elections has leveled off, the number of elections with government harassment of the opposition or media bias in favor of the incumbent has increased.
Democratic backslding
Why worry about democratic backsliding?
2011 World Values Survey showed Millenials in the US and Europe were less likely to say that democracy is essential and more likely to embrace other values such as “strong leaders.” (Norris, 2017)
Democratic backslding
Why worry about democratic backsliding?
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Erik Voeten (2016) argues that this is largely a matter of cynicism about US institutions and that it is actually driven by older people.
Democratic backsliding
Norris (2017) claims two related trends are the greatest threat to democracies. First are “sporadic and random terrorist attacks on domestic soil, which damage feelings of security,” and second is “the rise of populist-authoritarian forces, which feed upon these fears.”
Basic terminology
- Democratic backsliding
- Autocratic Regression or Autocratic Deepening
- Regime Transition
Basic terminology
“…four broad types of regime transformation: liberalization in autocracies1, democratic deepening in democracies2, and autocratization in both democracies3 and autocracies4.” (Maerz et al., 2023)
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
- Decline in democratic quality of governance (As defined previously in the semester.)
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
- Decline in democratic quality of governance (As defined previously in the semester.)
- Consolidated democracy moving to a lower level of democracy
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
- Decline in democratic quality of governance (As defined previously in the semester.)
- Consolidated democracy moving to a lower level of democracy
For example, erosion of civil liberties, decline in the rule of law, or reduction in political rights.
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
- Decline in democratic quality of governance (As defined previously in the semester.)
- Consolidated democracy moving to a lower quality of democracy
- A democracy moving to a more authoritarian form of government.
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
- Decline in democratic quality of governance (As defined previously in the semester.)
- Consolidated democracy moving to a lower quality of democracy
- A democracy moving to a more authoritarian form of government.
- Does this mean elections get worse? Do election problems always indicate democratic backsliding?
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
- Decline in democratic quality of governance (As defined previously in the semester.)
- Consolidated democracy moving to a lower quality of democracy
- A democracy moving to a more authoritarian form of government.
- Election problems may be a symptom of backsliding, but elections are not the only indicator of democracy.
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
- Decline in democratic quality of governance (As defined previously in the semester.)
- Consolidated democracy moving to a lower quality of democracy
- A democracy moving to a more authoritarian form of government.
- Election problems may be a symptom of backsliding, but elections are not the only indicator of democracy.
- Measured by changes in scores on measures such as Polity V, Freedom House Index, or V-Dem Regimes of the World Index.
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
- Decline in democratic quality of governance (As defined previously in the semester.)
- Consolidated democracy moving to a lower quality of democracy
- A democracy moving to a more authoritarian form of government.
- Election problems may be a symptom of backsliding, but elections are not the only indicator of democracy.
- Measured by changes in scores on measures such as Polity V, Freedom House Index, or V-Dem Regimes of the World Index.
- Does democratic backslding always have to mean a country becoming a nondemocracy?
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
- Decline in democratic quality of governance (As defined previously in the semester.)
- Consolidated democracy moving to a lower quality of democracy
- A democracy moving to a more authoritarian form of government.
- Election problems may be a symptom of backsliding, but elections are not the only indicator of democracy.
- Measured by changes in scores on measures such as Polity V, Freedom House Index, or V-Dem Regimes of the World Index.
- Does democratic backslding always have to mean a country becoming a nondemocracy? No. It does not have to involve a change in regime type, just a decline in democratic quality.
Basic terminology
Autocratic Regression or Autocratic Deepening
- Happens in nondemocratic regimes
Basic terminology
Autocratic Regression or Autocratic Deepening
- Happens in nondemocratic regimes
- Movement away from democracy, towards closed autocracy.
Basic terminology
Autocratic Regression or Autocratic Deepening
- Happens in nondemocratic regimes
- Movement away from democracy, towards closed autocracy.
- How do we measure it?
Basic terminology
Autocratic Regression or Autocratic Deepening
- Happens in nondemocratic regimes
- Movement away from democracy, towards closed autocracy.
- How do we measure it? With the same regime type indicators as we use for democratic backsliding: Polity V, Freedom House Index, or V-Dem Regimes of the World Index (among others)
Basic terminology
Autocratic Regression or Autocratic Deepening
- Happens in nondemocratic regimes
- Movement away from democracy, towards closed autocracy.
- How do we measure it? With the same regime type indicators as we use for democratic backsliding: Polity V, Freedom House Index, or V-Dem Regimes of the World Index (among others)
- It can include changing categroies of autocracy, for example: electoral democracy to electoral autocracy, or electoral autocracy to closed autocracy.
- Does it have to involve a change in regime category?
Basic terminology
Autocratic Regression or Autocratic Deepening
- Happens in nondemocratic regimes
- Movement away from democracy, towards closed autocracy.
- How do we measure it? With the same regime type indicators as we use for democratic backsliding: Polity V, Freedom House Index, or V-Dem Regimes of the World Index (among others)
- It can include changing categroies of autocracy, for example: electoral democracy to electoral autocracy, or electoral autocracy to closed autocracy.
- Does it have to involve a change in regime category? No.
Basic terminology
Regime Transition
Basic terminology
Regime Transition
Basic terminology
Regime Transition
- A change in regime type
- can be either direction: liberalizing or autocratizing
- usually based on cutoff points in the indicators of regime type
Basic terminology
Regime Transition
- A change in regime type
- can be either direction: liberalizing or autocratizing
- usually based on cutoff points in the indicators of regime type
- these cutoffs can be a bit arbitrary
Basic terminology
Regime Transition
- A change in regime type
- can be either direction: liberalizing or autocratizing
- usually based on cutoff points in the indicators of regime type
- these cutoffs can be a bit arbitrary
- Great source is the Varieties of Democracy Project Episodes of Regime Transformation (ERT) Dataset
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
Autocratic Regression or Autocratic Deepening
Regime Transformation
Autocracy promotion
- Efforts by autocratic regimes to promote autocracy in other countries.
- Can involve providing support to autocratic regimes, military intervention, financial and economic cooperation with other autocracies, propaganda, election interference, and other means.
Basic terminology
Democratic backsliding
Autocratic Regression or Autocratic Deepening
Regime Transformation
Autocracy promotion
Repreesion
- The state's use of force or coercion for political reasons, especially to suppress dissent or opposition.
- Can be physical, psychological, or economic.
- Can be targeted at individuals, groups, or the general population.
Democratic Backsliding
Hyde, Susan D. 2020. “Democracy’s backsliding in the international environment.” Science 369(6508): 1192–1196.
Examples of Democratic Backsliding
Examples of Autocratic Regression or Deepening
Citations
Hyde, Susan D. 2020. “Democracy’s backsliding in the international environment.” Science 369(6508): 1192–1196.
Maerz, S. F., Edgell, A. B., Wilson, M. C., Hellmeier, S., & Lindberg, S. I. (2023). Episodes of regime transformation. Journal of Peace Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433231168192
Norris, Pippa. 2017. SSRN Electronic Journal “Is Western Democracy Backsliding? Diagnosing the Risks.” https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2933655 (Accessed January 17, 2022).
Veoten, Eric. Washington Post, The Monkey Cage. “It’s actually older people who have become more cynical about U.S. democracy.” December 14, 2016.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/12/14/its-actually-older-people-who-have-become-more-cynical-about-u-s-democracy/
Authorship, License, Credits
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